marianne hering - tyndale house
TRANSCRIPT
FOCUS ON THE FAMILY • ADVENTURES IN ODYSSEY® TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS, INC. • CAROL STREAM, ILLINOIS
MARIANNE HERINGCOVER ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID HOHN
INTERIOR ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID HOHN AND AMIT TAYAL
BOOK 18
Trouble on the Orphan Train
In honor of Charles Loring Brace (1826–1890), visionary for the Children’s Aid Society,
and Rev. Thomas H. Hagerty, a modest man who rode the Little Rock Express 7
on January 31, 1874
Trouble on the Orphan Train
© 2016 Focus on the Family. All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-58997-805-8
A Focus on the Family book published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.
Focus on the Family and Adventures in Odyssey, and the accompanying logos and designs, are federally registered trademarks, and The Imagination Station is a federally registered trademark of Focus on the Family, 8605 Explorer Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.
TYNDALE and Tyndale’s quill logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of Focus on the Family.
With the exception of known historical figures, all characters are the product of the author’s imagination.
Cover design by Michael Heath | Magnus Creative
Cover illustration and interior illustrations on pages iv, 2, and 5 copyright © David Hohn. All rights reserved.
All other interior illustrations copyright © Amit Tayal. All rights reserved.
For Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data for this title, visit http://www.loc.gov/help/contact-general.html.
Printed in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 167 6 5 4 3 2 1
For manufacturing information regarding this product, please call 1-800-323-9400.
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Contents
Prologue 1The Train Station 7The Newsboy 14Children’s Aid Society 24The Apple 38Beth 43The Letter 49The Horseman 61The Cotton Fire 71The Express Car 81Gad’s Hill, Missouri 90The Diamonds 97In the Sleeper Car 104Leonard 117The End of the Line 125Jail 132Secret Word Puzzle 138
1
Prologue
At Whit’s End, a lightning storm zapped
the Imagination Station’s computer. Then
the Imagination Station began to do
strange things. It took Patrick to the wrong
adventure. The machine was also giving
the wrong gifts.
At the workshop, Mr. Whittaker was gone.
Eugene was in charge.
Beth uncovered an older version of the
Imagination Station. It looked like a car. But
TROUBLE ON THE ORPHAN TRAIN
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this machine had some unusual features.
It had lockdown mode. Lockdown mode
took passengers to a new place. But the
passengers couldn’t
get out of the
Imagination Station.
They could only
watch what was
happening.
At the
end of
book 17,
In Fear
of the
Spear, Eugene was missing somewhere
in history. Beth and Patrick were trying
to find him. They didn’t know which
Imagination Station to ride in.
Here’s what happened:
3
Prologue
Patrick couldn’t decide which one to pick.
“Let’s go in the helicopter one,” Beth said.
“No,” Patrick said. “It’s still damaged from
the lightning strike.”
“Well,” Beth said, “why not the car one?”
“That one’s worse. Eugene got in it with
me, but he disappeared,” Patrick said.
“The Imagination Station sent you on
different adventures!” Beth said. “It’s never
happened before.”
“I don’t know where or when Eugene
went,” Patrick said.
Beth said, “Think, Patrick. What happened?”
Patrick closed his eyes to help him
remember. “Right before Eugene disappeared,
he said something weird,” Patrick said.
“Tell me,” Beth said.
TROUBLE ON THE ORPHAN TRAIN
4
Patrick looked worried. “I heard Eugene
say, ‘Stop the train!’ He sounded scared.”
“So these are the choices,” Beth said. She
held up her index finger. “Option one, get
into a broken machine.”
Patrick looked at the helicopter Imagination
Station. It had taken him to Pompeii by
mistake. And it had taken Beth here instead
of back to Whit’s End.
Beth held up a second finger. “Option two,
get into an Imagination Station that lands
on a moving train.”
“Or worse, on the train track,” Patrick
said.
Patrick looked at the car machine. It had
been working fine until this last adventure.
But Mr. Whittaker had programmed it for
the government to use. Maybe it had hidden
features that were causing problems.
TROUBLE ON THE ORPHAN TRAIN
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“Maybe we should just stay here,” Patrick
said. “Mr. Whittaker will come find us.”
“When?” Beth asked. “No one knows the
day he’s coming back.”
Patrick sighed. “Let’s take the car one,”
he said. “It has a lockdown mode. If it’s too
dangerous, it won’t let us out.”
“And maybe it will take us to Eugene,”
she said.
Patrick shrugged. “If it doesn’t separate
us too,” he said.
The cousins sat in the comfortable black
seats. They shut the doors.
Patrick gave the steering wheel a big spin.
Colors flashed on the windshield. They
whirled like a kaleidoscope.
Patrick heard the shriek of a train whistle.
And suddenly everything went black.
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1
The Train Station
Patrick watched the Imagination Station
vanish. He quickly looked around at his new
surroundings.
He was standing on a wood platform.
He saw a nearby sign on a wood post. It
was shaped like an X and said RAILROAD
CROSSING.
Then he remembered he wasn’t alone. At
least he shouldn’t be.
He turned around and saw a small
TROUBLE ON THE ORPHAN TRAIN
8
gray wood building. It had a door and two
windows. A wood sign was on the side of the
building. It said Hogan Mountain.
But there was no Beth. He shouted her
name twice. No one answered. He shouted
for Eugene. But again, no one answered.
A mountain stood in the distance. Train
tracks and dirt roads crisscrossed the area.
Patrick saw nothing else except countryside.
Pines, oaks, and rocky hillsides spread out
before him.
Patrick looked down. His shoes were
black boots. They laced up to his ankles.
He had on black knee-high socks and black
knickers.
He groaned. “I don’t like knickers,” he
whispered to himself. “They’re too short for
pants and too long for shorts.”
He stretched out his arms. He was
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The Train Station
wearing a jacket that matched the knickers.
He was glad for the jacket. The air had a
chill to it.
He felt his neck. A bow tie. “And bow ties
look goofy,” he said louder.
Patrick moved toward the building. The
building was obviously empty. There were
posters nailed to the wall near the door.
Most of the posters said WANTED at the top.
All of them showed faces of scowling men.
One fellow had a straight nose with a
thick moustache. The governor of Missouri
would pay a ten-thousand-dollar reward for
him, dead or alive. The outlaw’s name was
Jesse James.
An off-white
envelope caught
Patrick’s eye. It
had the words “To
TROUBLE ON THE ORPHAN TRAIN
10
Patrick.” The words were handwritten in
black ink. He pulled the envelope off the
wall. It was sealed.
Just then Patrick heard the faint whistle
of a train.
Patrick couldn’t wait to open the
envelope. He started to tear it. But the train
whistle blew again. This time it shrieked
much louder.
He would have to wait to read the letter.
Patrick rushed to the platform. The train
was approaching the station. Smoke gushed
from the engine’s smokestack.
The engine car rolled past Patrick slowly.
It had a large number seven on the front.
The engineer stuck his head and an arm
out the window. He wore a gray cloth cap.
He waved at Patrick.
Patrick waved back.
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The Train Station
Then the fuel car slowly rolled past. It was
loaded with wood.
A long railcar was next. It said Adams
Express Company on the side. The express-
car door was open.
The train came to a full stop.
The passenger cars had lots of windows.
Patrick saw faces looking out at him. Most
people were smiling. Could Beth or Eugene
be on that train? he wondered.
One boy in the last car stared at Patrick.
The boy stuck out his tongue.
Then he kept staring.
Patrick scowled. He
thought the boy was rude.
A door on the
passenger car opened.
A tall, bearded man
stepped off the train.
TROUBLE ON THE ORPHAN TRAIN
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He checked his pocket
watch. His watch was
gold too.
The man’s blue
uniform had gold
buttons. He wore
a matching blue
cap.
“Hello,” the man
said to Patrick. “I’m
Conductor Alford.
May I punch your
ticket?”
Patrick’s heart sank.
Ticket?
Patrick felt in the
pockets of his knickers.
There was something
in his right pocket. He
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The Train Station
pulled it out. He found three pieces of hard
candy, but no ticket.
Patrick felt in his jacket pockets. Nothing
was there except the letter. He gulped. “I
didn’t know I needed a ticket,” he mumbled.
The conductor frowned. He said, “Young
man, you can’t ride the train alone. Where
are your parents?”